PLANNING A VISIT TO THE
BARRIER ISLANDS
By
ZAN SKELTON
Book II: Marine Discovery Series
1982
Revised 1983
Produced by
Della McCaughan - Marine Education Specialist
Biloxi Senior High School
and
The Department of Wildlife Conservation
Bureau of Marine Resources
Terese P. Collins, Special Projects Officer
ILLUSTRATORS
Tuan Vu
Phuc Pham
Marine Biology Junior Instructors,
Biloxi Senior High School
DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
BUREAU OF MARINE RESOURCES
This publication was funded in part through a grant from the Office of Coastal Zone
Management under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended.
PLANNING A VISIT TO THE
BARRIER ISLANDS
In Central High School on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, each student enrolled in the
marine biology course is required to participate in three field trips during the semester
course. One trip involves a visit to one of Mississippi's barrier islands.
Mississippi's islands include two nearshore islands, Deer and Round, and four
offshore barrier islands. The offshore islands are Cat, Ship, Horn, and Petit Bois. The
offshore islands are from seven to twelve miles off the Mississippi coast, lying in a
general east to west alignment.
One reason that the offshore islands are called barrier islands is that they separate
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Sound. The offshore islands create a
barrier between the open Gulf waters to the south and a different sea environment to
the north of them known as the Mississippi Sound.
The Mississippi Sound is about eighty miles long, extending from Mobile Bay
across the entire length of the Mississippi coastline to Lake Borgne in Louisiana. The
barrier islands mark the southern boundary of the Sound. Great quantities of fresh water
are emptied into the Sound by the Pascagoula and Alabama Rivers on the east and the
Pearl River on the west. The fresh water, held in the Sound by the barrier island, helps to
create an estuarine environment where the fresh water mixes with the salt water of the
Gulf. Ordinarily the Sound is about half as salty as the Gulf.
The nearshore and
offshore islands also provide
protection for the Mississippi
coast, helping to prevent
erosion and flooding of the
coastal mainland. In addition,
they are storm buffers,
helping to reduce the effects
of waves that hit the
Mississippi lands bordering
the water. They are an
invaluable part of the total
environment
of
the
Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Along the offshore
islands, the intertidal areas
are almost entirely sand, with
extensive grass beds along the Sound side. Water along these islands is usually clear. The
islands provide fascinating areas for the study of marine life, since they provide habitats
for many sea animals, resident and migratory birds, and unusual vegetation in which the
marine biology students are interested.
One theory says the islands were created by remarkable forces of nature that have
gradually built up the islands through wind and wave action moving the sand. It is
estimated that they build up slowly on the western ends--maybe two meters a year.
The offshore islands have been called by some writers "links in the chain"--but
seen from above, they might more properly be labeled jewels, bound together on a
shifting chain of hidden sands and polished by water and wind.
Because of their ecological value, some of the islands are protected. Petit Bois,
Horn, and Ship Islands are part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, authorized by
Congress in 1971. Before that time, Horn Island was part of a wildlife refuge which had
been managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service since 1958.
Mrs.
Stevens,
the
marine biology
teacher
in
Central High
School, is very
familiar with
the
barrier
islands
and
knows that a
good field trip
does
not
merely happen.
It must be
thought about,
planned
for,
and supervised
carefully. It is an extension of the classroom itself, moving with students into
environments outside the walls of a building and using a different setting to help them
learn. The ideal setting for a marine biology class, of course, is the sea itself--and those
lands bordered by the sea.
The first field trip she plans will take her students to Horn Island, largest of
Mississippi's offshore barrier islands. Horn Island offers students unique opportunities to
put into practice much of what they have already learned. It is approximately ten miles
south of Pascagoula, directly west of Petit Bois Island.
Mrs. Stevens plans to visit Horn Island first because she knows that a great deal of
research has been conducted on the life forms there. Over 1,500 species of plants and
animals on Horn Island have been categorized and analyzed by scientists. Her students
always find the island both beautiful and rewarding as they study its terrain and its plant
and animal communities.
Before her students make their first field trip to Horn Island, Mrs. Stevens directs
them in a series of activities that will help them benefit most from their visit. The
preparation begins long before the
actual excursion.
First, students learn to seine
and to throw cast nest and brail nets.
They make beach trips to collect
marine organisms, and they learn how
to identify these creatures. Students
also take care of the large salt water
aquariums in the classroom. They
collect other marine specimens from
various sources; they read about the
Mississippi Sound and its tidal
systems, currents, size, shape, and
weather; they learn safety rules; they
identify shells; they compare jellyfish
with ctenophores and study the
anatomy and physiology of these and
other organisms collected. They
identify life cycles of shrimp, blue
crabs, and oyster drills and learn to use
the microscope effectively.
These are just some of the
things the students must do--and learn-if their trip to a barrier island is to be
productive and enriching.
One important part of the
preparation is an attempt to help the students understand--and appreciate--the barrier
islands, so Mrs. Stevens attempts to discuss the many aspects of the islands with her
students. Usually there are a great many questions, and despite her careful plans, the
classroom discussion extends far beyond the class period.
Many of the students are familiar with some facts about the islands; some of them
have visited Ship Island on one of the excursion boats which carry visitors to and from
Ship Island every day. All of them can see Deer Island as they drive down the Biloxi and
Ocean Springs beaches. But their real knowledge of these offshore and nearshore islands
is sketchy, at best.
As a preliminary to her discussion, Mrs. Stevens names the nearshore and
offshore islands.
"They include, moving from east to west, Petit Bois, Horn, Round, Deer, Ship,
and Cat Islands," she says, listing the names on the board. "Round and Deer are the
nearshore islands."
"What are they like?" one of the students is certain to ask.
"Each of them is different; yet in many ways they are much alike. They are very
beautiful and still remarkably untouched by any destructive forces other than those of
nature itself."
"Are they deserted?"
"Well, if you mean are there people on
them--yes and no. Ship Island, which some of
you already know about, has park rangers
from the National Park Service living on the
island, because it is part of the Gulf Islands
National Seashore and is under the control of
the National Park Service. Horn and Petit Bois
are also under the jurisdiction of the National
Park Service. There are some park rangers on
Horn Island and occasional campers on the
island. Although there are no inhabitants yet,
you can see a couple of the houses on Deer
Island when you drive east. Scientists often
visit the islands also. With the exception of
general visitation by man, they're not used.
There is a need for utilizing them very
carefully. Their ecosystems are fragile. The
best example of that is a barrier island which
disappeared about forty years ago."
"Just disappeared?"
"Yes. It was called the isle of Caprice
by people on the coast, although sea charts
called it Dog Island, and it was located about fourteen miles offshore. It contained
entertainment facilities, camping sites, and pavilions, and it was a popular resort in 1923.
But the island was fragile, and as people continued to develop it, it began to erode. There
are probably a great many reasons for its disappearance. Some people have said that too
much of the vegetation was removed; others say that wind and tide erosion over the years
caused it to disappear. It finally disappeared in 1931, leaving only an artesian well
flowing above the surface of the waters covering the island."
"You mean people can make islands go away?"
"Not often--but it has happened. And the islands are always changing--shifting--to
a continuing state of erosion; hurricanes and small storms change them and man-made
channels affect them."
"What's on them, then? What will
we be looking for?"
"A large variety of plants, some
of them unique; dune systems; tidal
lagoons; and the salt marsh complex with
interesting animal habitats--marine life of
many kinds--"
"I know we're going to Horn
Island on our first field trip, but what are
the rest of the islands like?"
"Well, let me begin to the west-and I'll move east as we island-hop. The
one farthest west is Cat Island--seven
miles off the coast of Gulfport and Long
Beach."
"Why is it called Cat Island?
That's a funny name for an island, isn't
it?"
"It was first named Ile Aux Chats,
because of the raccoons the French found
there in 1699. They reminded the French explorers of cats."
"Is that d'Iberville you're talking about? We studied him in our Mississippi history
class."
"Yes--Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'Iberville. His fleet anchored at Ship Island on
February 10, 1699. They visited all the islands apparently and set up a fort on the coastal
shore where Ocean Springs is now."
"There's a lot of history connected with the islands, then?"
"Yes, the history of the islands is colorful and interesting. Cat Island, for example,
was used by a small colony of French military men in 1757. They are said to have
mutinied and executed their commander. And the English tried to get the island's owner,
Juan Cuevas, to lead them through the passes of the coast to New Orleans in the War of
1812. Cuevas would not help the British and gave
General Andrew Jackson time to prepare for the
Battle of New Orleans in 1814 and defeat the
British. The British placed their civil government
contingent on Cat Island prior to their capture of
Ship Island as their staging ground for the assault
on New Orleans. In more modern times, Cat
Island has been used by the Seabees for
maneuvers in World War II.
"The T-shaped island is only about six
miles long from east to west. The top part of the
'T' runs generally north and south and is about
three miles wide. Its shoreline is about twenty-one
miles in all, with three miles of beautiful beach.
Cat Island covers about 2,500 acres. At one time
it produced oysters from the South Bayou, where
smugglers later operated."
"Smugglers?"
"Probably all of the islands have seen some smuggling operations of one kind or
another over the years. They were
convenient places for smuggling liquor
into the country when liquor was
prohibited in the United States, for
example."
"And Indians?"
"Yes, Indians. Indian artifacts are
still being found on the islands--broken
pottery, arrowheads, remains of camping
areas."
"What's the next island in the
chain?"
"The one you probably know the
most about, Ship Island. Today, it's really
two islands, because in 1969 Hurricane
Camille literally separated it into two
parts, making a cut about 5,500 feet wide.
In the early 1800s and twice before that
time, the island was also divided, but grew
together again through action of the winds
and tides. The division caused by Hurricane Camille cut a channel as much as six feet
deep between the two halves of the island."
"Ship Island has a lot of history, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I told you that Ship Island is where d'Iberville first anchored in 1699, and it
was named Ile de Vasseau, which translates into Ship Island. The British fleet gathered
there in 1814 to attack New Orleans, with the largest sea force ever to enter American
waters."
"Isn't that where the fort is?"
"Fort Massachusetts? Yes. And it is where most tourists go when they visit
Mississippi's offshore islands. It has regular boat service, and you can go through the
fort."
"Why is the fort there?"
"It was started in 1856 and was
intended for the protection of the Gulf
coast and New Orleans, but it wasn't
finished until 1871. It is shaped like a
horseshoe and built of brick. It is on the
northwest end of Ship Island and has
been threatened by erosion over the
years. It is 115 feet across the flat east
side, 180 feet north to south, and 105
feet wide east to west. The walls are five
feet thick, narrowing to three feet and
two inches at the places where guns
were to be placed. Today there is one
large canon on the northeast upper
corner of the fort. The fort was not
completed when the Civil War broke
out, so it had to wait for completion until
ten years later.
"During the Civil War the island
was used as a federal naval base and
then as a prison camp for Confederate
captives. The island became a quarantine
station in 1878--housing immigrants
coming into the country and serving as
an isolation station for yellow fever victims. For a long time it was used as a loading site
for timber cut on the mainland."
"How big is Ship Island? It seemed pretty big to me when my folks took me out
there a few years ago--but I was little then and everything seemed big."
"Well, when the island was one piece, it was about seven miles long and half a
mile wide at its biggest part. It lies south of Biloxi. The pass from the Gulf into the
Mississippi Sound is just off its western tip, separating Ship Island from Cat Island by
about six miles."
"I'd hate to be there when a hurricane struck."
"I think I wouldn't want to be on any of the islands during a hurricane, and Ship
Island has weathered many such storms. It's a matter of record that in 1721, for some
reason, ships anchored at Ship Island rode out a big hurricane safely, while many ships
along the coast were not so fortunate."
"Is Ship Island the biggest of these islands off the Mississippi coast?"
"No. The one we're going to visit on our trip is the largest."
"Horn Island?"
"Yes. Located south of Bellefontaine Point and Gautier, southwest of Pascagoula,
it's over thirteen miles long, with a high protective dune ridge several miles long on the
northern edge. There are also large dunes on the south side. One feature of the barrier
islands is that the southern shores of the islands are generally firmer and more clearly
defined. The northern shores have been eroded by strong currents, and are not
replenished by wave building action. The northern shores are often poorly defined and
made of coarser sand. Ponds, lagoons, and marshes are found on the northern side. It has
a westward accretion--"
"A westward-what?"
"Accretion. An 'adding to.' The currents and drifts carry sand westward. In this
way they build up the western ends of the island
while at the same time eroding the eastern ends.
The result is a gradual westward drift of all the
offshore islands."
"You mean they move?"
"If you could see the old charts, you
would be able to see that they have gradually
moved westward. It's interesting that Petit Bois
used to be a part of Alabama, but because of the
westward shifting, is now part of Mississippi."
"Did anybody ever live on Horn Island?"
"Yes. There are records of a few
families having lived on Horn, farming and
raising cattle and hogs. Some colonial families
probably lived there for short periods. At one
time sand was hauled from Horn to New
Orleans for glassworks."
"I heard somebody say that it used to be
a military installation."
"In 1943, during World War II, it was
acquired by the Biological Warfare Service."
"Like 'germ warfare', you mean?"
"Yes. The military conducted biological research there in a warfare research
testing installation. They had building and a short railroad and scientists lived there. It
was deactivated in 1945."
"Is it pretty barren now?"
"Not at all. About a third of it is made up of beach dunes, but there are close to
five-hundred acres of woodland. On Horn you'll find marshes and meadowland. You'll
see live oaks and palmettos and magnolias and pines and marsh plants--pennyworts and
salt grass and bush goldenrod. I think you'll be surprised how much of the island 'lives.'
There are brackish and freshwater marshes, each with interesting life forms. The marshes
are from a few to several hundred feet across. There are ponds with low salinity. You'll
see evidence of a wide variety of animal life. There are migratory and resident birds,
nutria, muskrat, raccoons, hogs, rabbits, snakes. Before we make out trip, we will make a
list of those things we're looking for. And I'll identify the marine specimens we find, if
you can't do that yourself. You know, of course, that we have to have permission to visit
Horn Island."
"Why?
permission?"
Who
gives
you
"The National Park Service
office in Ocean Springs. The United
States Department of Interior
obtained jurisdiction over Horn
Island and Petit Bois as part of the
Gulf Islands National Seashore on
January 8, 1971. The Park Service
protects the islands. Ship Island,
too, is part of the Gulf Islands
National Seashore."
"Does that mean they belong
to everybody now?"
"It means that they will be
protected for people to enjoy these
natural areas forever. The National
Park Ser vice rangers act to protect
wildlife and to preserve the islands
always in their natural state. We
will be visitors--and we will not do
anything to harm or alter the
environment. We won't injure any
shrub or tree or pick the sea oats or collect any wildlife. All of that is prohibited. You can
gather seashells and use driftwood for firewood, but we won't leave any trash there or do
any damage. We owe that to the island and to other people--and to ourselves!"
"Are these all the Mississippi offshore islands, then?"
"No. There is also Petit Bois, just east of Horn Island, south of the Pascagoula
area. This island probably separated from Dauphin Island, south of Mobile, in the mid1700s. Petit Bois is about 6.7 miles long. The name means 'Little Woods,' and there are
about fourteen acres of woodland on Petit Bois. Then north of the eastern end of Horn
Island is Round Island, whish is on e of the nearshore islands. It is about four miles south
of Pascagoula. And, of course, you know about the other nearshore island, Deer Island,
just off the Biloxi shore."
"Isn't there a lot of controversy going on about Deer Island now?"
"Yes. The island is small--about five miles long and a half a mile wide--and there
are efforts being made now to 'develop' it."
"What do you mean--'develop'?"
"To make it available for people to live there--to put up houses and build
recreational areas and streets. Some people do not want it to be altered. It has both
privately owned acres of uplands and several hundred acres of public wetlands. I'm sure
that some of you have been out to Deer Island many times."
"When are we going on the trip, Mrs. Stevens? Will you tell us what we need to
take? What do we have to do to get ready? How many people can get on the boat? Do we
leave early in the morning and stay out there all day?"
"Just a minute--I'll answer all those questions. But today I just wanted to
introduce the islands off the Mississippi Gulf Coast to you. If you have any questions,
we'll have to get to them later. The period is almost over now. But the best answers, of
course, will be found on the island itself. That's where you'll learn most."
There
are a great many
more things to
be said about
Mississippi's
island,
Mrs.
Stevens knows.
But she is right.
The
best
possible
classroom for
her
marine
sciences class
will be the field
trips
themselves. She
will need to
make
many
more preparations for the first trip to Horn Island, but she has made a beginning.
Soon the entire class will embark on a new and fascinating voyage into the life of
the barrier islands. There the real learning will take place.
There, Mrs. Stevens is certain her students will begin to understand and to
appreciate the natural wonders of an important feature of the marine environment off the
Mississippi Gulf Coast--the nearshore islands and the offshore barrier islands.
A GLOSSARY FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
access
accretion
alter
anatomy
artifacts
authorized
barren
barrier
brackish water
channel
colonial
complex
ctenophore
controversy
dune
environment
erosion
excursion
extension
habitation
jellyfish
lagoon
mainland
maneuvers
marine
marsh
meadow
mutiny
organism
pavilion
pennywort
physiology
pollution
a way or means of approaching
an increase by gradual external addition
change
structure of an animal or plant
man-made objects
to give authority for
unproductive, empty
natural obstacle, something in the way
water in which the salinity is variable, usually lower in salinity than
ocean water and ranging from approximately 0.05 to 17.00 or more
parts per thousand
passage
of times when America was a colony of England
complicated, made up of interconnected parts
swimming marine life form with gelatinous body
conflict, dispute
sand hill or sand ridge
surroundings
wearing away
trip
expansion, lengthening
site of life, place where things live below the high water mark
one of marine life forms with soft, gelatinous structure
area of shallow water separated from the sea by low banks
principal land area of a state or country as opposed to island areas
planned movement of troops
of the sea
low, wet land
grassland
revolt or rebellion
any form of animal or plant life
open building used for shelter, concerts, entertainment, etc.
a plant having round-ish leaves
a science dealing with living organisms or their parts
the introduction of elements, compounds, or any other matter into
places where living organisms are harmed, causing slow growth,
prevention or alteration of growth, or death
quarantine
refuge
resources
salinity
smuggler
specimen
tidal
unique
uplands
vegetation
wetlands
to isolate or separate, usually because of disease
shelter or protection from danger
support items, life support materials
state of saltiness
one who secretly brings in goods
part of individual typical of a group
of the tides
one of a kind
land higher than nearby land
plant life
low land, influenced by water